


A Christmas Requiem

by Noctumsolis



Category: A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Canon, Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28260564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noctumsolis/pseuds/Noctumsolis
Summary: Ebenezer Scrooge would repay a kindness and seek to redeem his late partner, but what could Jacob Marley have done to earn release from his fetters and eternal torment? Scrooge alone may have a chance of achieving his reclamation.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. Scrooge's Ghost

## Stave One

* * *

Scrooge's Ghost

Marley was dead, as has elsewhere been established, and seldom remembered. When his memory was brought to mind it was among those who still languished in the debtor’s prisons to which he had seen them condemned. Marley’s faint memory was scorned, reviled and without the warm regard of any living soul save, at the last, one: his business partner Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Scrooge owed much of his great and long-hoarded wealth to the partnership and legacy of Jacob Marley, but it was not this for which he now kept Marley in his thoughts. It was rather in light of extraordinary events, instigated by Marley’s own shade, that had wrought upon Scrooge a transformation from unrelenting miser to a generous and philanthropic pillar of the city.

Alas! Every man's brief light must be snuffed from the world, and so it was that Scrooge breathed his last at the dusk of Christmas Eve, upon the fourteenth anniversary of his late partner's death. In stark contrast to his predecessor, Scrooge's deathbed was as well attended as was seemly. There was his junior partner and that partner's youngest son, Mister Bob and Master Tim Cratchit. There also were Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, and the attending nurse. So in good company, Ebeneezer Scrooge departed the mortal realm.

Yet Scrooge was, when all was said and done, a man of business. Although its execution no longer consumed his every waking thought, as once it had done, he nonetheless would not permit his own death to obstruct that which he considered the proper course of his affairs. To this end, as might any man, he had made certain provisions in his last will and testament; yet more pressing matters now, upon his timely passing, occupied Scrooge’s latterly-grown spirit.

The shade of Ebeneezer Scrooge arose, shedding his worldly remains as easily as bedclothes. He made stay to thank, unheard, those who had kept his company in his final hours and, having done so, turned his attention to his own unearthly self. He saw, without the familiar motions of head and eye, that his spirit wore the form to which it had in life been accustomed: he was well, but not extravagantly dressed according to his station. On his breast, however, a strange token hung; a single, broken ring as the link of a chain.

He chuffed, as much as a shade might, to see it there. Once, he knew too well, that would have been merely the first link in a ponderous and heavily weighted chain of his own mortal making. He had begun to shed those fetters seven years before. Redemption was wrought by his own deeds, but such would never have been if not for the lessons of three noble spirits of christmas, visited upon him at the behest of the immortal, tormented ghost of Jacob Marley.

###  The Last Ghost

Upon lifting his attention from that ethereal ironmongery Scrooge perceived a figure newly arrived to the room, one which recalled his final visitor of that significant night. This imposing spirit loomed tall over those assembled souls, as though a shadow made solid and inevitable. Yet Scrooge perceived a character in that spirit of which he had not, in the former visitation, taken note. For where a standing man might throw his shadow, this towering shade shed curious light. 

The spirit was unmoving; it might have been a statue for all sign it gave of mobility, and in such rendered the appearance of infinite patience. The ghost of Scrooge felt still some trepidation in addressing the figure, so implacable in their previous encounter, but steeled himself to the task even as he knelt in supplication. 

"Spirit," said he, diffidently, "am I addressing the last of three ghosts visited upon me some years ago?"

Still no sound, no gesture of head or limb that might serve for communication. Except, perhaps, a slight increase in the light of the visitor's strange shadow. 

Scrooge would have swallowed, had he still a throat more than memory, but said, "Spirit, I must make petition; not on my own behalf—I will accept what is coming to me—but for the sake of another man's soul. The soul of," briefly he hesitated, "Jacob Marley."

This, at last, moved the spirit to respond. It raised one arm, without haste or flourish, from which extended a long, pale finger. It pointed, in silent command, towards the chamber door. 

Scrooge hesitated, then asked, "Will my petition be heard?"

Yet the spirit's only response was to remain still, to maintain its gesture toward the portal. Scrooge supposed he had better obey that silent command, and hope to be heard thereafter. He arose, turned and took the memory of a walk towards that door, and through it without opening.

On the far side he found not the familiar rooms of his home, but utter darkness. A far deeper darkness than any of his mortal experience, or any that might be pierced by candle or lamp. Yet as he looked, a point of light did appear. 


	2. The Ghost of Christmas Past

## Stave Two

* * *

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Alike, at first, to a distant candle, the glow drew rapidly nearer until, step by flickering step, another spirit resolved. The shade of Scrooge was in the presence, once more, of the ghost of christmas past.

“I had believed our business concluded,” said the spirit, “I am certain, by your lost fetters, that you remember it.”

“Ah, yes, spirit,” said a humbled Scrooge, “the business of my reclamation is, I think, quite complete and I thank you, and your fellow spirits, for it. I have been, I feel, much the better for it. But I must make petition for… for another.”

“Our visitation upon you was not a matter of course. Do you believe that your changed nature grants you the authority, or the power, to direct us now?”

“Please, do not misunderstand me, spirit. I do not intend to send you out upon some errand. The work is for myself, and other mortals. I ask only that it be observed and considered, in the hope that respite might be granted to the spirit of Jacob. Jacob Marley.”

The ghost fixed Scrooge with a sharp gaze and asked, “Do you seek to repay a debt, to your creditor of spirit?”

“In as many words?” Scrooge considered this, “No. I hope to redeem the man, not the ledger.”

The spectre nodded, slowly, then said, “But the reclamation of one soul, your soul, can not wipe away the harm he did in life.”

“I understand, spirit, as much as I am able. But I have made certain efforts, certain provisions, toward his recovery. I would gladly review these, if it pleases you.”

The ghost seemed to regard every aspect of Scrooge’s spirit before giving answer, “You may make your case. Call freely upon whatever perspective you require in this.”

“Thank you,” Scrooge uttered, softly as a falling snowflake. “First, I would like to revisit the night upon which poor Jacob appeared to me and warned me of the path I trod.”

“So be it,” said the ghost, whereupon light flashed around the room before rapidly settling to reveal the memory of the living Scrooge, huddled over the small fire in its enormous hearth.

###  Marley’s Visit

Scrooge regarded his former self and felt, at first, a flash of revulsion. Almost immediately that unkind feeling was replaced with a deep and regretful pity, for none could know better than he the cost to himself of the harm that he had wrought upon others. That feeling went not unnoticed.

“You look upon yourself with pity,” intoned the spirit that Scrooge had brought here.

“Yes,” muttered Scrooge, “the man who then I was, knew so little and denied so much; of himself and others. Oh, the harm I did!” he moaned. Then Scrooge turned his attention to the spirit and said, as bells began to ring, “but if even this man could be redeemed, then others surely might. Is that not so?”

For a moment the ghost seemed to have three faces. Two were upon Scrooge, being of scorn and of indulgence. The third had turned toward the door that would lead onto the stairs, the door that then flew open, the door through which, in memory, the shade of Jacob Marley dragged his heavy chains.

Together the two spirits, of Scrooge and Christmas Past, observed and considered that meeting. They saw the skeptic Scrooge deny the evidence of his own senses and, even after accepting that, try to turn his old friend from the repentance that he so earnestly made:

“Business!” Marley’s ghost had cried then, with such fervour that even in death Scrooge cringed to witness it once more. More and on Marley lamented his missed opportunities of benevolence and remonstrated his friend’s stubborn reluctance to take his offered chance at reclamation.

There came the moment whereupon Marley’s shade had floated out, joining in the lamenting host. Scrooge had looked out, then, upon the spectres that haunted the world and now, in this memory, the ghost drew toward the window and turned upon the spirit of Scrooge.

“Did you forget this multitude of remorseful souls? Are they, in your eye, less deserving of reclamation than one miser of your own acquaintance?”

Scrooge shook his head in heavy sorrow, “I make no judgement of them, spirit. I can not say whether they are more or less deserving than my friend. I can only say that I knew him and that we shared worldly concerns. By this may I hope to salvage him, where I have no hope of helping them.”

Silently both ghosts stood as the image of Scrooge in his chambers faded like a dwindling flame. Ebeneezer could feel the spirit’s attention upon him all the while and, once ready, addressed it.

“I would take you now, to—”

The ghost of christmas past had silenced Scrooge by placing his hand to that place where his beating heart would have been. Flashes of light in each corner brought the same room back into view, but in quite another time. 

###  Kindred Spirits

Drawn curtains admitted dull daylight, dim as the dining table tapers set to give light to ledgers that lay where plates and platters could have been. At either end of the table, in hard and high backed chairs, two men took in the figures with all the relish that other men might find in fine food. These two were Ebenezer Scrooge and his partner and host, Jacob Marley. 

There was little to be heard; the meagre fire in the grate was little more than embers, not a word passed between the men and their pens scratched only intermittently, absorbed as they were in their work. 

Like his past self, the shade of Scrooge remained silent and absorbed, this time in reflection. The ghost with whom he travelled seemed content to wait, for between them they had all the time world. Eventually, the silence broke. 

From without the window came a muffled cry of, "Merry Christmas!" Returned a moment later by some other on that street. 

Scrooge paused in his work and uttered a single syllable, "Bah."

Marley muttered, “Humbug”. 

Each man sipped from the tall glass before him, almost as though a toast. Then, glasses reseated, took up his pen once more.

The spirit asked, “What, by this display of ill will, do you hope to demonstrate? Do you place the blame for his misdeeds at your own feet?”

“Not that, spirit.” Scrooge answered, raising his spectral arm in gesture toward the men at the table, “Witness rather that we two were, on this day, together. Where each of us were, by our own inclination, outcast from the common joy of humanity, we were, together, not alone. After Marley’s passing I knew loneliness that I had not since boyhood; abandoned in that school with only books for company.”

“Yet by keeping company, you shored up each other’s walls against your fellow men. Even as you sat here, you scorned those beyond the walls who made merry upon the day.”

“We were not good men,” said Scrooge, shaking his head, “but even so, Jacob and I sat here, in his chambers, kindred spirits. Though I scarcely recognised it then, nor think he meant it consciously, Jacob offered me some, small measure, of the milk of human kindness.”

###  Salaried Salvation

Then the vision blinked into utter darkness, wherein Scrooge made no pause before giving his next direction.

“He had shown me kindness before,” said he, whereupon the hand of the ghost again touched him and a different place danced into view as he spoke its nature, “Upon the occasion of my former employer’s bankruptcy, in the office where I was engaged as clerk, he made to me an offer that no outside force compelled him to.”

In that office, the image of which now stood around the two shades, were three clerks at work. A young Scrooge, only a year past his apprenticeship, was among them. In the next office, beyond panes of glass, Marley stood tall before an older man, shrinking upon his stool.

Marley could be heard to say, “You have my offer and should not think you will receive a better one. I will buy these debts from you at the rate stipulated, or you will lose everything.”

The young Scrooge watched through the glass. His countenance betrayed no sympathy, but kind of curiosity modulated by fear. His own ghost regarded him.

“It was clear to me that old Peterson would have to let me go. He might hope to rebuild after selling, but would not afford my salary. If I could not find other employment then I would be condemned to poverty, penury, and misery,” finished Scrooge.

Marley came then into the front office, even as Peterson buried his face in his palms. He shut the door behind him.

“Which of you is Master Scrooge?”

“I am, sir,” said he with obvious surprise.

“In reviewing the accounts here I have been impressed with your work. I mean to offer you a position in my employ, with a promotion to chief clerk. Will you accept?”

Scrooge’s cheeks puffed and his eyebrows momentarily raised, but he answered clearly, “Yes, Mister Marley.”

“Good,” answered Marley with an air of satisfaction, “Be at my office first thing Monday morning. You know where it is?”

“I do, sir.”

Marley nodded, put on his hat and departed. Scrooge, that is his younger self, sat upon his stool in a pose of some shock.

“Good for you, Ebeneezer,” said the oldest of the three, “I knew you were one to watch.”

“Yes,” said the other, although with markedly less enthusiasm, “well done. I hope you prosper.”

“I think I shall,” said Ebeneezer, “yes, I think so.”

None of the three admitted between them to hearing the soft sobbing of their employer but, as the scene faded like those before, it was the single preoccupation of the shade of Ebeneezer Scrooge.

He heard the ghost asking him, “Was this charity, or did he make this offer for his own benefit?”

“I think it was both. Believe me, spirit, I know that Jacob Marley wrought great harm in his life upon the Earth. But I beseech you, recognise the small good as well.”

“Very well,” answered the ghost of christmas past, “his small kindnesses are noted.” A pause was left, of immeasurable length between timeless spirits, before it said, “This was, more or less, the start of things between you. Would you next show me some earlier time, out of your direct knowledge?”

Scrooge’s shade took a great breath, though no lungs pulled air, to give answer, “No earlier, and no more memories. Oh, there may have been other such moments in any number, but these stand foremost in my attention.”

“Then your case is made?” The spirit’s attitude was not dismissive, nor unkind; it seemed, for the first time, confused.

Scrooge shook his head, “No, but the past is done with. Now, in reclamation of my friend, it is to the future that I must turn.”

A bell tolled, and the ghost of Ebeneezer Scrooge was once more alone in darkness. Another chime and he stood again beside his deathbed. Before him, as though neither had moved at all, towered the black-robed spectre.


End file.
